del mar 
Three Del Mar Fairgrounds board members won’t face sanctions from the state Fair Political Practices Commission after amending their economic interest forms to disclose who used or received $4,776 in free tickets to last year’s county fair and concerts.

The state agency that runs the fairgrounds will also receive a warning letter asking it to make the disclosures more thorough in the future.

The FPPC opened an investigation into the distribution of the $3,718 in fair tickets and $1,058 in concert passes in November after activist Ian Trowbridge complained. The state intervened because free tickets to events can be considered an improper gift of public funds or taxable income if their purpose does not benefit the venue.

At the time, the fairgrounds had only disclosed how many tickets each member received, but not who got them beyond immediate family.

Fairgrounds board President Adam Day, for instance, reported receiving 12 tickets to the Bruno Mars concert for himself and his immediate family — even though he has only five children.

Day, assistant tribal manager at Sycuan, updated his disclosure to reflect seven other tickets went to Glenn Quiroga, executive vice president of the Sycuan Tribal Development Corp.

Day said in interviews with The Watchdog that Quiroga and the other recipients had a business or community relations purpose for the venue.

“I would like to thank Mr. Trowbridge for bringing this to the district’s attention,” Day said. “Regrettably, an administrative mistake occurred, but the result now is greater transparency, which we all seek.”

The fair is a state agency known as the 22nd District Agricultural Association. Its board members are appointed to four-year terms by the governor and are unpaid. Gary Winuk, the FPPC’s chief of enforcement, said the requirement to report tickets is relatively new, and agencies are still adjusting.

“As long as there was a governmental purpose and they can articulate it and it’s posted, then there’s nothing on the fair board member,” Winuk said.

Trowbridge said he complained about ticket usage because he was concerned about political favoritism. He said he would continue to monitor activities at the fairgrounds.

“I would say that the board members received tickets and turf club benefits in excess of their official needs and should have paid for them or reported them as gifts,” Trowbridge said.

The commission in 2008 revised its policies to define free fair and concert tickets as gifts to board members — subject to a $420 annual limit — unless there was a legitimate business purpose.

The gift limits do not apply if the board member is serving an official role at the event. The member can also give the tickets away if the fairgrounds benefits in certain specified ways.

The FPPC over the past week has sent letters to Day along with colleagues Ruben Barrales and Russ Penniman, saying that — once amendments were made — no state violations occurred.

Day made the most changes to his original disclosure form, dated July 18. He listed several people who received fair and concert tickets, including Pete Smith of the Rancho Santa Fe Association and Lindsay Natzic, a former receptionist to county Supervisor Bill Horn.

Barrales updated his disclosure to reflect that he got 88 fair tickets, and that Richard Leib got six tickets to Bruno Mars, and Mario Rodriguez got six to The Beach Boys (although he only used five). Their business affiliations were not listed.

Penniman, who never reported receiving concert tickets, kept his disclosure the same to reflect the original 44 fair tickets. He said in his new disclosure that the tickets were for immediate family instead of just him. Neither Barrales or Penniman returned calls seeking comment.